Onvif importance

[rgreen]

Hi All,
I currently have an Amcrest DVR and am ready to upgrade to something with a decent UX/ UI and also plan to upgrade the old analog cams to POE and/or wireless. In my current plan, I am thinking of going down the Blue Iris route. As I am looking at new cameras how important is Onvif compatibility? This is for residential, Single Family house, ranch style and covering about 3,000 square feet of outdoor space. And if not important for the BI setup now should I still try to buy Onvif compatible cameras in case I wanted to ditch the BI box in the future?? Thanks!

 

[sebastiantombs]

ONVIF compliant is a given, residential, commercial or industrial. It allows VMS software, BI and all the others, to identify all the features of the camera.

 

[wittaj]

If it isn't ONVIF, then you are stuck with proprietary equipment that will only work with the same brand. Think Ring, Nest, Arlo, etc. and then your hands are tied.

Wifi is problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to use it through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a wifi camera and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies if it is hard-wired trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. Someone did a test here once and after 4 wifi cameras, the system became unstable.

 

[Flintstone61]

If you can setup a stable Blue Iris PC, and get some practice moving efficiently thru the software menus, you will be glad you made the move. Installed my 16th camera today, and the 8th generation Core i5-8500 didn’t blink. Running about 10-13% cpu.

 

[rgreen]

Thanks! So 1. ONVIF required 2. stay away from wireless if possible
I'm excited to try BlueIris as I've been on Amcrest Tech support too many times in the past couple of days. So according to @wittaj I presume I want to go with a POE powered switch to avoid a wifi router. Something like

https://www.amazon.com/BV-Tech-Port...ch+8+port&qid=1631762518&s=electronics&sr=1-5

? Also when you say "wifi is problematic". Do you mean all wireless cameras are problematic or POE into a router versus a direct POE switch that is connected directly to the BI box. I'm new to this.. thanks!

RG

 

[Flintstone61]

Wireless cams will slow your home wifi to other devices. Wifi doesn't transmit and receive as fast as copper. If you have a lot of smart phone users streaming, or surfing, the wifi channel will be slowed down by the amount of cameras on the wifi channel. if your ISP is giving you 30Mbps and the 4 cams are transmitting at 4Mbps, thats 16Mbps on your wifi, If everybody in the house has a phone and a tablet and a smart TV....well you get my point.
My nephew installed a Reolink 4 channel wifi cam NVR, and my iphone Web page loading speed is painfully slower than it was before when i visit his house. YMMV.
his reolink system works. but I wouldn't do it. He had to run all kinds of extension cords to power the cameras. a POE cam is a neater install. and a stable install.

 

[Teken]

I know the latest rage is to buy the cheapest hardware from the vendor you listed in your link. But would ask you to consider going with a name brand from TrendNET / TP-Link / Netgear.

Before going with a 3rd tier brand name. All three brands are considered 2nd tier in the industry and meet all UL / cUL safety requirements.

3rd tier you’re gambling any listing or sticker is real. Considering it’s the back bone to powering and managing all the data in the network. The power listing from these 2nd tier will be real vs exaggerated from the 3rd tier.

Just some random options from Amazon for you to consider:

https://amzn.to/2XonqGG

https://amzn.to/3CoDs2F

https://amzn.to/3nFjWeb

https://amzn.to/3zi4fvp

Things to consider is each POE standard indicates what it’s capable of powering per port. POE af, POE at, POE bt, all offer different power output at higher voltages. Many of the switches use the external PSU to keep a small form factor vs an internal one.

No right or wrong but something to consider. Any rack mounted switch by default will cost more and obviously is bigger in every way. But this allows everything to be mounted into a standard server cabinet to keep things safe, secure, and easily managed.

Consider power consumption and whether the units are passive vs active cooling. As this directly reflects noise or the lack thereof. Which also relates to power consumption and generated heat.

So research, plan, and deploy quiet and efficient hardware that is field proven to last at least 5-10 years. If you’re feeling spendy consider a managed switch that offers VLAN’s.

This will allow you more control over the data and increase security for the network.